• elision •

Meaning: The omission of sounds or syllables from spoken words or discourse, such as pronouncing police as "p'lice" or pollution as "p'lution".

Notes: Today's word is the process noun from the verb elide [ê-laid]. The adjective is elisional. This word is used mainly in linguistics to refer to sounds that drop out of words in the process of linguistic change, usually unaccented vowels. Don't confuse elision with ellipsis, the omission of words that are unnecessary or irrelevant from a sentence, usually indicated by a triplet of periods (...). This group of dots is also called an ellipsis.

In Play: Elision is all around us. Dr. Goodword wrote a long piece on elision called 'Do You Suffer the Embarrassment of LVS?' which is now available in his online office. The elision of initial syllables is very noticeable in the Southern dialects: opossum becomes 'possum, potato becomes 'tater, and alligator is pronounced 'gator. But internal elision of unaccented vowels is rampant in all dialects of English: s'pose for suppose, prob'ly—even prol'ly—for probably, and so on.

Word History: Today's Good Word is derived from the verb elide, which comes via French from Latin elidere "to omit, strike out", based on e(x) "out" + laedere "to strike". We don't know where this root came from, and it does not seem to have developed in other Indo-European languages. We do see it in at least two more English words borrowed from Latin. An allision "crashing into" comes from ad "(up) to" + lædere "to strike", while collision "crashing together" comes from com- "together (with)" + lædere "strike". A moving object crashing into an immoveable object results in an allision. Two moving objects striking each other is a collision. (We are happy that Lew Jury did not elide this word from the list of Good Words he has sent us.)

I lament the Good Doctor's definition of elision, not dispute but lament. MTC described the Elysian I like (note MTC's adaptation of the spelling). I loved the quotation from Virgil and the definition as enhanced by MTC. This response deserves to be in his amazing apocrypha.

Re the verb elide: I don't think I have heard the pronunciation "eleed". The pronunciation spoken on the Internet dictionary is what I have always heard. As I hear it on line, I spell it phonetically with my own all-alphabet-pronunciation-scheme "ee-'lied" (identical to "he lied" using an elision on the "he"). With what was once the standard American pronunciation markings I would write "ē-'līd". My old "Webster's seventh New Collegiate Dictionary" disagrees. It pronounces the word "i-'līd" where "i" is the short “i” that I would like to top with a caron (ˇ). I can't remember how to produce an “i” with a caron on top of it on my computer. My memory is not what it used to be, nor has it ever been.

I rarely use “elide” myself and have spent much too much effort in describing how it is pronounced. If we could post actual voices it would be easier to describe pronunciations.I could Skype each of you individually but that is too big a chore and would not be welcomed. I rarely Skype.